


Homesteading

by Ellenar_Ride



Series: Mending Links [17]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mending Links 'Verse, Plot! Finally!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21896998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellenar_Ride/pseuds/Ellenar_Ride
Summary: He builds his house, and he builds his life. He wakes up every morning with the Master Sword in his hand. It takes time, but he puts together a little one-room cabin, similar to his home in Hateno. (He pretends it doesn’t ache every time he looks at it.) He rides up to the stable and purchases a few last-minute supplies, tells one kind-but-curious worker he’s setting up a little homestead nearby.(Welcome to the "Main Plot" edition ofMending Links.  May not be frequently updated, depends on ideas and timing and workload.)
Series: Mending Links [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545610
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	Homesteading

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dimensional Links](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15194783) by [ChangelingRin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangelingRin/pseuds/ChangelingRin). 
  * Inspired by [Linked Universe](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/544003) by jojo56830. 



For once, Link can honestly say he’s minding his own business and not chasing trouble. Link has _retired_ from chasing trouble. He’s freed the Divine Beasts, defeated the Calamity, and saved Princess Zelda—he’s _done._ Now it’s time to focus on putting himself back together. His head is empty and his hands are shaky and the weight of Zelda’s, Impa’s, Purah’s, Robbie’s, everyone’s expectations is just too much. Now he needs to just _be._

Link loves his little house in Hateno Village, and when he first retires he moves in there for what he thinks will be the rest of his life. It ends up being less than six months. Every time he sees the villagers, realizes again just how innocent they are, something breaks in his chest. They shouldn’t have to put up with a monster like him. His chest locks up more and more until he stops talking again.

The final straw is the day he wanders back to the village in a daze and doesn’t realize he’s covered in Bokoblin blood until one of the children grabs his arm and comes away with hands stained red. The memory plays over in his mind again and again: he’d slaughtered the Bokoblin camp. They had to die, they were eating travelers, but he tore through a camp of seven in less than five minutes. He just… ripped them apart. He’d burned the place after—no need to attract even more predators. ~~It doesn’t have anything to do with the all-consuming _disgust_ tying his stomach in knots when he sees what he’s done.~~

That night he dreams Hateno is a Bokoblin camp, and he wakes up with blood on his tunic, smoke in his nostrils, and the Master Sword in his hand. He’s three steps onto the bridge separating his home from the village when he realizes he’s still dreaming, that what he sees (and smells and feels and hears) isn’t real, and he shoves his sword back into its scabbard and throws himself sideways, tumbling from the bridge to the water below. The shock of hitting the water jolts him awake completely, and when he resurfaces there is no blood, no smoke. No screams. Hateno Village is a peaceful settlement, except for him.

The children like to come out to his house in the mornings to fawn over Ember, his sweet mare. The children had been at the end of the bridge when he came out with his sword drawn. The children peer over the side of the bridge, calling out in alarm. Karin yells for her parents. Link hauls himself from the water, _I was going to kill them_ echoing in his skull. Would he even have recognized them when they were dead? Would he have heard their voices screaming, begging for him to stop, desperate to understand? Or would he only have seen more Bokoblins? Would their pleas have been only the shrieks of monsters to his ears?

This is the day Link picks up his adventuring gear and walks out of Hateno Village for what he thinks will be the rest of his life. He can’t let himself hurt people who have been so kind and welcoming. He can’t let himself hurt the children. (He tries not to think of his life there, of warm smiles and gentle eyes and a strong hand clapping him on the shoulder. Tries not to dwell on the tactile memory of small bodies crashing into his legs, knobby arms wrapping around his knees.)

So he leaves. He walks to Tarry Town. He finds Bolson. He begs. _Teach me how to build a house._ He stays in a camp on the shore while he learns, just past the bridge. He doesn’t dare sleep near the townsfolk. It’s not safe. So he camps, and he learns, and when Bolson and his crew have taught him everything they can he says goodbye and leaves. (Ignores the manufactured lessons the construction crew keep throwing together in their efforts to keep him there.)

He wanders across Hyrule, abandoning the roads at the slightest sign of sentient life, until he finds the perfect place for his new sanctuary. (His new prison.) Between the Gerudo Highlands and Tanagar Canyon, there’s a little place called Lake Illumeni. There’s a grove of trees around the lake, and a big chunk of grasslands. It’s a little over an hour’s ride from the nearest stable on the Master Cycle Zero—close enough to be relatively convenient when he needs something he can’t hunt or gather or make himself, far enough away he doesn’t have to worry about slaughtering them in his sleep.

There are two paths from the stable—Tabantha Bridge Stable—to the lake, around Illumeni Plateau. The east past is inhabited by Moblins; the west by Bokoblins on horseback. Halfway up the slope behind him is a Bokoblin camp. While judicious use of his monster masks is enough to let him pass unscathed, it’s a safe guess that no-one else will chance it. There’s an Ice Wizzrobe he has to kill again every time the Blood Moon rises, but beyond that it’s peaceful. The monsters don’t bother him and the herd of wild horses comes to know him extraordinarily fast.

When Link arrives, he makes a camp and sets about making his home. First, he clears away the ruins that were present when he arrives. A few half-destroyed buildings in among the trees. When he’s done clearing away the ruins, he devotes two days to carving a memorial for the place. _Lake Illumeni Settlement. May you be at peace._ Someone in this place should be at peace.

He builds his house, and he builds his life. He wakes up every morning with the Master Sword in his hand. It takes time, but he puts together a little one-room cabin, similar to his home in Hateno. (He pretends it doesn’t ache every time he looks at it.) He rides up to the stable and purchases a few last-minute supplies, tells one kind-but-curious worker he’s setting up a little homestead nearby. He passes his days quietly, hunting and foraging, planting fruits and vegetables and trees. Clearing grown trees in inconvenient places. Stocking the lake with fish, catching them, and releasing them again. Tending to Ember, his giant mare. Procuring, protecting, and providing for a pair of sheep, a dairy cow, and a quartet of cuccos.

One day, when he’s feeling ambitious (and tired of waking up to a sword in his hand), he carves a little dugout and locks up all of his weapons but a single sturdy bow for hunting; he digs out the Master Sword if he needs to leave his little field, but otherwise goes unarmed. (The less weapons available to him at his worst, the better.) One day, he digs out and reinforces a little cave in the roots of a sturdy old tree, which he uses to grow all kinds of mushrooms. One day, he learns how to make arrows and spends weeks working until he has an uncountable number of them stashed away.

One day he puts roofs on his animal pens, to keep any monsters from getting at them. One day he builds a storage shed for all the plants he has to harvest. One day he builds a sturdy, permanent firepit to use, instead of building countless temporary fires in a cleared-out patch of grass. One day he builds a dock on the lake and tries his hand at making a raft. One day he builds a fence around his entire little settlement. One day he panics and clears out all of the Moblins and Bokoblins. Five days later there’s a Blood Moon and they’re all back.

If he keeps himself busy enough, he can’t smell the smoke. If he keeps himself busy enough, he can’t feel the blood and sweat slick on his skin. If he keeps himself busy enough, works himself hard enough, he falls into bed too exhausted to dream of the slaughter or dwell on the long-forgotten past.

(He pretends being so alone all so suddenly isn’t shattering him into a million impossibly-sharp fragments.)

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are, a multi-chapter story in the Mending Links 'Verse! Finally! It begins with Sav forming the base of the Homestead, and will go on to cover the arrival of all of the Links. Maybe more after that, depending on ideas and planning. This story is pretty low priority right now, though—"Meeting the Broken Links" still comes first.
> 
> (EVERYTHING I TOUCH TURNS TO ANGST.)
> 
> EDIT: I rewrote this chapter because I really wasn't happy with the original version. It's pretty much the same, except consistently in present tense now, but some of the lines are prettier/more emotional, at least in my opinion.


End file.
